2008 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant Announcement

Arizona  |   California  |   Colorado  |   District of Columbia  |   Florida  |   Illinois  |   Indiana 

Kentucky  |   Louisiana  |   Maryland  |   Massachusetts  |   Michigan  |   Mississippi 

New York  |   North Carolina  |   Pennsylvania  |   South Carolina  |   Texas  |   Virginia  

Arizona

Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ
Grant Category: Programs to Build Insitutional Capacity
Award Amount: $999,860; Matching Amount: $847,324

Contact: Jana Bradley
Director and Professor
(520)621-3565; janabrad@email.arizona.edu

Project Title: "Knowledge River II - Building Capacity for Diversity in Library and Information Science Education"
Addressing the nation’s need for librarians from diverse backgrounds, especially those from the Hispanic and Native American communities, the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science, along with its partners, will build upon the previously funded Knowledge River Program to provide 48 scholarships to master’s of library science students. “Knowledge River II” will also embed diversity issues across the entire curriculum, provide community service and outreach to diverse communities locally and nationally, and develop faculty and student research in issues of diversity within library and information science.

California

Regents of the University of California, Los Angeles - Los Angeles, CA
Grant Category: Doctoral Programs
Award Amount: $950,555; Matching Amount: $136,965

Contact: Dr. Anne Gilliland
Professor
(310)206-4687; Gilliland@gseis.ucla.edu

Project Title: "Building the Future of Archival Education and Research"
With its grant, the University of California, Los Angeles, along with its partners the University of Maryland; University of Michigan; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas; Simmons College; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will address the shortage of professors in archival science by providing at least four doctoral fellowships in archival-related topics. To strengthen the growing network of archival educators in library and information science programs, this project will also develop three annual, week-long, workshops for students, faculty, and working archivists to address pedagogical techniques, research methodology, and curriculum development, as well as technical and social issues relevant to the field.

Colorado

University of Denver -Denver, CO
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $999,370; Matching Amount: $236,306

Contact: Dr. Sylvia Hall-Ellis
Associate Professor
(303)871-7881; shellis@du.edu

Project Title: "University of Denver Law Librarian Fellowship Program"
The University of Denver will develop and integrate into its curriculum significant course offerings in law librarianship, and recruit and educate ten new law librarians through a comprehensive law librarianship program specifically designed to provide students with the general competencies, specialized subject training, and extensive practical experience necessary to be successful in this field. The project will also provide extensive on-site training, field mentoring, and public outreach to populations currently underserved by the legal information community.

District of Columbia

Association of Research Libraries - Washington, DC
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $728,821; Matching Amount: $311,946

Contact: Mr. Jerome Offord
Director of Diversity Initiatives
(202)296-2296; jerome@arl.org

Project Title: "ARL Minority Fellowship Program"
Partnering with the National Library of Medicine and libraries at the universities of Arizona, Kentucky, North Carolina State, and SUNY- Albany, the Association of Research Libraries will provide 45 master’s of library science students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups with internships in an academic or research library. It will also provide these ARL Minority Fellows with librarian mentors, opportunities for leadership development, and career placement. Using an internship cohort model, this program seeks to address recruitment and retention of minority librarians by providing them with a close network of peers, while at the same time providing these outstanding students with practical learning experiences to complement their library school coursework.

Florida

Florida State University - Tallahassee, FL
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $754,755; Matching Amount: $380,439

Contact: Dr. Nancy Everhart
Associate Professor
(850)644-8122; everhart@ci.fsu.edu

Project Title: "Leadership in Action: School Library Media Specialists for the 21st Century: Leaders Educated to Make Difference"
Florida State University along with its partners, the New York University Research Center for Leadership in Action and local school districts, will conduct a research project to determine how library and information science education can better prepare school library media specialists to be leaders in technology integration in their schools. Researchers will follow 30 recipients of two previously funded IMLS school library media scholarship programs through their first year working in the schools.  This project will also explore how “Cooperative Inquiry Methodology,” a leadership development program based on professional collaboration, can be used to better measure the educational outcomes of school library media programs.

Illinois

Board of Trustees, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Champaign, IL
Grant Category: Programs to Build Insitutional Capacity
Award Amount: $892,028; Matching Amount: $600,349

Contact: Dr. Allen Renear
Associate Professor
(217)265-5216; renear@uiuc.edu

Project Title: "Extending Data Curation to the Humanities: Curriculum Development & Recruiting"
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign will extend its work in data curation in the sciences to include the humanities by developing a model humanities curation graduate curriculum and a related continuing education institute.  The university will also widely disseminate curricular and continuing education materials. The project will recruit, provide scholarships, and fund internships for master’s students interested in careers in humanities data curation. By creating more professionals with the right skill sets and knowledge base, this project helps address the nation’s need to better manage the cultural record, an increasing amount of which is digital.

Indiana

Indiana State Library - Indianapolis, IN
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $999,991; Matching Amount: $50,878

Contact: Ms. Marcia Smith-Woodard
Special Services Consultant
(317)232-3719; mwoodard@library.IN.gov

Project Title: "Librarians Leading in Diversity (LLID)"
The Indiana State Library will increase the level of ethnic diversity in all types of libraries across the state by recruiting and providing scholarships for 30 master’s of library science students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, who will then commit to work in an Indiana library for at least two years. Scholarship recipients will also benefit from participation in state and regional library associations, as well as other supplementary activities including special orientation meetings in various types of library settings, meetings with library directors, diversity and ethics workshops, transition to work programs, online and face-to-face support networks, and other special projects.

Kentucky

University of Kentucky Research Foundation - Lexington, KY
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $339,420; Matching Amount: $146,522

Contact: Dr. Sujin Kim
Regular Faculty
(859)257-8657; sujinkim@uky.edu

Project Title: "A STUDY OF METADATA FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITIZED PATHOLOGIC IMAGES"
This Early Career Development grant will provide support for Assistant Professor Sujin Kim to study four different existing methods of describing and representing medical pathology images, leading to one standardized descriptive framework so that clinicians and medical researchers can more readily share information about these images. The researcher will convene focus groups of experts from both the medical and information professions to inform the model, test that model against industry standards for pathologic imaging properties, and evaluate its effectiveness in data retrieval. This project will extend librarianship’s knowledge and skills to a non-traditional library “collection,” while significantly aiding medical imaging through the creation of an integrated standard that will foster seamless searching across different image storage systems.

Louisiana

State Library of Louisiana - Baton Rouge, LA
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $155,946; Matching Amount: $160,222

Contact: Ms. Dorothy White
Associate State Librarian
dwhite@state.lib.la.us

Project Title: "Executive Leadership Training for Louisiana Public Librarians"
This grant will be the first in Louisiana to provide a statewide training program specifically tailored to public library leaders and potential leaders. It will provide the structure and materials needed to repeat the training in future years. Through daylong workshops and a weeklong institute, the state library will increase knowledge of best practices, as well as management and supervision principles for public library staff and library school students.

Louisiana State University, A&M - Baton Rouge, LA
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $279,672; Matching Amount: $269,784

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Dow
Associate Professor
(225)578-1469; edow1@lsu.edu

Project Title: "The Mid-Gulf Coast Collaborative for Continuing Education in Archives Management"
In the continuing effort to address post-Katrina issues in Gulf Coast cultural heritage institutions, Louisiana State University A& M’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science will work to create the Mid-Gulf Coast Collaborative for Education (MGCEAC), which will target the staffs of small, resource-challenged repositories in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  The grant will provide them with various affordable workshops and other continuing education opportunities, based on a needs survey. During this three-year grant, the MGCEAC expects to present between six and twelve CE opportunities in each state, reaching from 150-350 participants. The goal is to establish a sustainable mechanism for providing ongoing continuing education to help support these highly vulnerable institutions that do so much for their local communities and region.

Maryland

University of Maryland - College Park, MD
Grant Category: Programs to Build Insitutional Capacity
Award Amount: $591,554; Matching Amount: $513,961

Contact: Dr. Kari Kraus
Assistant Professor
(301)405-7459; kkraus@umd.edu

Project Title: "Digital Humanities Model Internship Program"
The College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland and the schools of information at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin will partner with three digital humanities centers—the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland, the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska, and MATRIX, the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences at Michigan State University—to create eighteen internships for master’s of library science students interested in careers in digital humanities centers or digital libraries. This project will strengthen the relationship between digital humanities centers and the library and information science professions by providing opportunities for collaborative research between the digital humanities centers’ staffs and library and information science faculty, while providing practical, cutting-edge learning experiences for graduate students.

Massachusetts

Simmons College - Boston, MA
Grant Category: Doctoral Programs
Award Amount: $955,694; Matching Amount: $876,813

Contact: Dr. Peter Hernon
Professor
(617)521-2800; peter.hernon@simmons.edu

Project Title: "Ph.D. / Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions: Targeting Public and State Library Leadership"
Building upon a previously funded project, the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science will expand its PhD concentration in managerial leadership in the information professions to include 18 rising leaders in the public and state library arenas. Until recently, students in this program have largely been drawn from the academic library community. Designed to provide mid- to upper-level library managers with the opportunities to prepare for senior-level leadership, this project will use face-to-face and online courses, research projects, and intensive interaction with library leaders acting as “professors of practice,” along with a variety of supplementary activities,  to develop the leadership and management potential of its students. Student products such as case studies, literature reviews, and issues briefs will be disseminated so that they might influence master’s-level courses in library management and leadership.

Michigan

Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $631,816; Matching Amount: $177,036

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Yakel
Associate Professor
(734)763-3569; yakel@umich.edu

Project Title: "Engaging Communities to Foster Internships for Preservation and Digital Curation"
The University of Michigan School of Information, along with its partners—the Center for Research Libraries, the Florida Center for Library Automation, the LOCKSS program at Stanford University, the Northeast Document Conservation Center, OCLC, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Safe Sound Archive, the Inter-university Consortium for Social and Political Research (ICPSR),  the University of Michigan Libraries and the Internet Archives—will provide 30 digital curation/preservation administration summer internships to master’s in library science students over three years, and  perform curriculum development to encourage the ongoing exchange between real-world practice and the classroom. This project seeks to address the growing need for more professionals to manage and preserve the nation’s ever-increasing amounts of digital information.

Mississippi

Mississippi Library Commission - Jackson, MS
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $97,434; Matching Amount: $98,143

Contact: Ms. Jane Smith
Director of Public Services Bureau
(601)432-4040; mjsmith@mlc.lib.ms.us

Project Title: "Librarianship 201 Institute"
The Mississippi Library Commission will conduct an intensive, in-residence workshop to serve the continuing education needs of mid-level staff employed in public libraries in Mississippi.  Thirty candidates will be selected each year to attend the Librarianship 201 Institute, which will be held in Jackson and will cover topics in public library advocacy, management, ethics, and technology. Nationally recognized scholars and practitioners of library science will teach both theoretical and practical aspects. Participants will network with their peers to strengthen and establish bonds that enhance librarianship in isolated and rural communities.

New York

New York University - New York, NY
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $788,747; Matching Amount: $183,791

Contact: Dr. Howard Besser
Director, MIAP
(212)992-9399; howard@nyu.edu

Project Title: "Professional Training for Moving Image Archiving and Preservation"
The New York University Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP) will provide intensive work experience in libraries for MIAP interns and graduates. The funding will support 36 semester/summer internships and six post-graduate fellowships over the three years. Directed internships will meet key educational goals of preparing students to work in libraries that are adapting to the new demands and complexities of moving image collections. This will result in a trained pool of moving image specialists that have substantial work experience in libraries, are fluent with both analog and digital domains, and are ready to lead in the development of new strategies for library media collections, special collections, and digital library collections.

Pratt Institute - New York, NY
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $756,324; Matching Amount: $521,910

Contact: Dr. Tula Giannini
Dean and Associate Professor
(212)647-7682; giannini@pratt.edu

Project Title: "Preparing Information Professional for Museum Libraries in the Digital Age: Pratt-SILS in partnership with the Brooklyn Museum Project M-LEAD (Museum"
The Pratt School of Information and Library Science and the Brooklyn Museum will recruit and provide scholarships to a highly diverse group of 30 students, educating them for careers in museum librarianship in the digital age. Students will take classes at Pratt and intern at the Brooklyn Museum, and will receive master’s degrees in library and information sciences and a certificate in museum librarianship. The partners will also produce and widely disseminate a study on the current state of museum library education.

St. John's University - Queens, NY
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $990,892; Matching Amount: $861,293

Contact: Dr. Jeffrey Olson
Project Director
(718)990-5705; olsonj@stjohns.edu

Project Title: "Recruiting and Educating Special Librarians for Professional Leadership"
St. John’s University and its partners, the Metropolitan New York Library Council and the Law Librarians of Greater New York, will recruit and educate 40 master’s of library science students interested in careers in special libraries such as those found in the corporate, legal, and media worlds. Special librarians provide expert, in-depth information support in dynamic, deadline-dominated, competitive environments. Seeking to help prepare individuals for such a career, this project will supplement a core library science curriculum with courses in knowledge management, competitive intelligence, marketing research, and other related topics, while integrating this coursework into a wide array of opportunities for professional networking, mentoring, and service learning. This program will provide well-qualified new professionals a chance to work in New York, which has a high concentration of influential special libraries.

North Carolina

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Office of Sponsored Research - Chapel Hill, NC
Grant Category: Programs to Build Insitutional Capacity
Award Amount: $878,634; Matching Amount: $848,176

Contact: Dr. Helen Tibbo
Professor
(919)962-8063; tibbo@email.unc.edu

Project Title: "DigCCurr II: Extending an International Digital Curation Curriculum to Doctoral Students and Practitioners"
Building upon an earlier funded project, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, partnering with the National Archives and Records Administration and the University of Glasgow, will develop an international, doctoral-level curriculum and educational network in the management and preservation of digital materials across their life cycle. If cultural heritage, science, commerce, health, education, and government sectors are to have long-term access and re-use of meaningful  and authentic digital resources, graduate education programs must produce PhD-level faculty in digital curation. This project will prepare future faculty to perform research and teach in this area, as well as provide summer institutes for cultural heritage information professionals already working in this arena.

North Carolina Central University - Durham, NC
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $839,073; Matching Amount: $738,376

Contact: Dr. Irene Owens
Dean
(919)530-7438; iowens@nccu.edu

Project Title: ""Library as Place": North Carolina Central University Diversity Scholars"
Building upon a previously funded project, North Carolina Central University’s School of Library and Information Science, along with a wide range of North Carolina academic, public, and school library partners, will recruit and provide scholarships for master’s of library science degrees to 20 minority students from 12 North Carolina counties.  This extended, research-oriented master’s program will focus on studying the “face-to-face” roles of the library, often termed “library as place,” as well as issues relating to diversity in librarianship. Library partners will provide students with work experiences, mentors, and opportunities for greater interaction between the academy and practice in their research.

University of North Carolina, Greensboro - Greensboro, NC
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $862,014; Matching Amount: $248,186

Contact: Dr. Sha Li Zhang
Assistant Director for Coll. & Tech. Services
(336)334-4705; slzhang@uncg.edu

Project Title: "Academic and Cultural Enrichment Scholars' Program: Collaborating with Libraries to Recruit and Prepare Ethnic Minority Librarians for the 21st Century"
The Department of Library and Information Studies and the University Libraries of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, along with partners from ten North Carolina academic libraries, will recruit and provide master’s of library science scholarships to 12 ethnic minority students interested in working in academic libraries. Scholarship recipients will participate in professional conferences at the state and national level, and partner libraries will provide internships and mentors. In addition, libraries at Elon University, Wake Forest University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro will each provide a one-year, entry-level position for a scholarship recipient following his or her graduation.

Pennsylvania

Drexel University - Philadelphia, PA
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $224,386; Matching Amount: $42,086

Contact: Dr. Jung-ran Park
Assistant Professor
(215)899-1669; jung-ran.park@ischool.drexel.edu

Project Title: "Modeling Interpersonal Discourse for Digital Information Service: Evaluation of the Question-Answering Service of the Internet Public Library"
This Early Career Development grant will provide support for Assistant Professor Jung-ran Park to analyze interpersonal communication between librarians and the public in digital information service. Using transcripts from the Internet Public Library’s Question Answering Service, the researcher will study patterns of communication employed by librarians and the public in their email and real-time chat interactions and provide an empirical model for assessing the impact of interpersonal communication on successful digital information reference. Such a study carries the potential to enhance one of digital librarianship’s core skill sets.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $391,400; Matching Amount: $418,061

Contact: Mr. Paul Vanderwiel
Director, Human Resources
vanderwielp@carnegielibrary.org

Project Title: "Management Skills Workshop"
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will conduct a staff development program that identifies and nurtures future leaders within the library's ranks in a year-long professional development program. Graduates of this program then enter a second tier of training that develops executive leadership skills and teaches nonprofit management skills. At the end of this three-year project they will produce a case study and educational training materials based on this model that will be available to other libraries.

South Carolina

University of South Carolina, Research Foundation - Columbia, SC
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $155,885; Matching Amount: $44,861

Contact: Dr. Jennifer Arns
Assistant Professor
(803)777-2319; jarns@gwm.sc.edu

Project Title: "Assessing the Economic Value of Public Library Services: A Review of the Literature and Meta-Analysis"
In this Early Career Development Grant, Assistant Professor Jennifer Arns at the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science will gather, summarize, and integrate recent studies on the economic impact of public libraries in their communities, building a more comprehensive understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these studies. Based on this integration and analysis, the project will create and disseminate models for further public library economic benefits studies, as well as methods for incorporating the findings from this research into library promotional materials.

Texas

Texas State Library and Archives Commission - Austin, TX
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $535,556; Matching Amount: $417,306

Contact: Dr. Danielle Plumer
Coordinator
(512)463-5852; dplumer@tsl.state.tx.us

Project Title: "Train to Share: Interoperability Training for Cultural Heritage Institutions"
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission, with the University of North Texas Libraries, Amigos Library Services, and other partners, will develop Train to Share, a workshop program under the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative for Texas librarians and other cultural heritage professionals. The three-year project will develop state-wide workshops, adapted from the Library of Congress “Cataloging for the 21st Century” series, to provide training on interoperability measures of digitization projects, and principles of sharable metadata developed in a project previously funded by IMLS.  As a result, cultural heritage institutions will provide better access to their rare and unique materials and will forge new sustainable partnerships vital to the ongoing development of digital projects across the state.

University of Texas at Austin, Office of Sponsored Projects - Austin, TX
Grant Category: Doctoral Programs
Award Amount: $978,617; Matching Amount: $254,376

Contact: Dr. Jo Lynn Westbrook
Assistant Professor
(512)232-7831; lynnwest@ischool.utexas.edu

Project Title: "Cultivating Digital Librarianship Faculty: Tomorrow's Leaders in Research and Curriculum Development"
The University of Texas at Austin, along with its partners Drexel University and the Internet Public Library, will educate four full-time doctoral students to become leaders in digital librarianship. Incorporating innovative coursework, in-depth research, teaching experiences, and wider engagement with the scholarly community, this project will develop library and information science faculty who will have both the theoretical understanding and practical skills required to develop the next generation of librarians who will be called upon to manage, preserve, and provide access to an ever-increasing array of digital resources. This project will focus on providing doctoral students with a deep understanding of digital librarianship in four specific areas: multimedia collections, digital library services, bridges between physical and digital libraries, and digital library evaluation.

University of Texas at Austin, Office of Sponsored Projects - Austin, TX
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $255,040; Matching Amount: $88,081

Contact: Dr. Megan Winget
Assistant Professor
(512)471-3969; megan@ischool.utexas.edu

Project Title: "Video Games and the Cultural Record: Studying the Creation Processes and Artifacts of the Video Game Industry for the Purpose of Collection and Preservation"
This Early Career Development grant will provide support for Assistant Professor Megan Winget to study the collection and preservation of “massively multiplayer online” (MMO) games. Currently, preservation models for many types of digital creations focus on the end product, resulting in the loss of most of the artifacts from the creative process. This becomes especially problematic as an increasing number of digital products have no definite completion. Using ethnographic research techniques, Dr. Winget will seek to better understand the video game industry’s methods, behaviors, and attitudes for the purpose of building more meaningful models of collection and preservation of complex, community-built digital creations. This research carries the promise of informing a wide array of issues in digital preservation, from digital media art to immersive learning environments.

City of Dallas - Dallas, TX
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $545,909; Matching Amount: $99,607

Contact: Ms. Marcia Trent
Administrator
(214)670-7835; marcia.trent@dallaslibrary.org

Project Title: "Dallas Public Library Grow Your Own Librarian"
With nearly half of its librarians projected to retire in the next five years and a paucity of Spanish-speaking librarians on its staff to serve its increasingly diverse population, the Dallas Public Library will recruit 30 individuals from among its staff, especially targeting those who are Spanish-speaking, and provide them with scholarships to study for master’s of library science degrees at Texas schools of library and information science. This “Grow Your Own Librarian” program will also fund a librarian mentor program and student attendance at state and national professional conferences.

University of North Texas - Denton, TX
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $544,514; Matching Amount: $552,799

Contact: Dr. Arlita Harris
Program-Project Coordinator
(940)783-7697; arlita@unt.edu

Project Title: "Lifelong Education @ Desktop: Online Continuing Education Courses for Library Staff"
The University of North Texas, through its online continuing education arm, Lifelong Education @ Desktop, will develop, produce, and market 30 online courses to meet the need for training of both library professional and library support staff in core competencies for certification by state and regional agencies. These inexpensive online courses will meet the certification requirements for broad national certifying programs such as the ALA Library Support Staff Certificate and the Western Council of Libraries Certificate programs. Courses will cover topics including leadership, personnel, long-range and strategic planning, partnerships, advocacy and marketing, circulation, reference, acquisitions, collection development and maintenance, cataloging, classification, and processing.

University of Houston - Clear Lake - Houston, TX
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $906,104; Matching Amount: $464,822

Contact: Dr. Jane Claes
Project Director
(281)283-3537; claesj@uhcl.edu

Project Title: "School Librarians & Administrators Working Together: A Key to Student Success, Collaborative School Librarian Training (CSLT) II"
There is a demonstrable need for school librarians in the Houston area, especially those trained in collaboration and working with diverse and disadvantaged populations. To help meet this need, the University of Houston-Clearlake will recruit and educate 30 school librarians with a special emphasis on collaborating with school administrators. With the help of a number of Texas school district partners, the project seeks to attract at least fifteen bilingual students to school librarianship, provide continuing education workshops for principal-librarian teams, and promote the full integration of new technologies into the curriculum.

San Antonio Public Library Foundation - San Antonio, TX
Grant Category: Masters Level Programs
Award Amount: $963,420; Matching Amount: $2,132,262

Contact: Ms. Roberta Sparks
Special Projects Manager
(210)207-2635; robertasparks@sanantonio.gov

Project Title: "Better Futures/Mejores Futuros"
The San Antonio Library Foundation and the San Antonio Public Library will recruit and provide master’s in library science scholarships to 45 individuals to address the shortage of professional librarians in the region while meeting the needs of their increasingly diverse community. At least half of the scholarship students will be bilingual. In addition to the formal graduate school work, the library will provide the scholarship recipients with librarian mentors, executive coaching, and the opportunity to work as library aides while engaging in professional development activities at the state and national levels.

Virginia

Fairfax County Public Library - Fairfax, VA
Grant Category: Pre-Professional Programs
Award Amount: $265,258; Matching Amount: $198,502

Contact: Ms. Erin Chernisky
Volunteer Coordinator
(703)324-8332; erin.chernisky@fairfaxcounty.gov

Project Title: "An American Future: Library Service Opportunities for Immigrant Youth"
Fairfax County Public Library and its partner, Liberty’s Promise, will collaborate to develop  a three-year project to recruit 90 low-income, immigrant youth for paid internships in the library.  The internships will provide support for these youth while introducing them to the vital role of the public library in American civic life. In turn, the interns will provide the library with a bridge to their communities, needed language skills, and fresh perspectives on how the library can serve the entire community. It is anticipated that following their time with the library, some of the interns will wish to pursue careers as librarians, while all will hopefully become advocates for public libraries.